


Anything But Love: The Present

by odeon



Series: Anything But Love: The Whole Shebang [3]
Category: Carol (2015), The Price of Salt - Patricia Highsmith
Genre: Broadway, Did I Say It's Porny?, F/F, Gratuitous Smut, Lesbian Sex, OTP Feels, Shameless Smut, Wishful Thinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-14
Updated: 2017-03-14
Packaged: 2018-10-05 02:43:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10295717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/odeon/pseuds/odeon
Summary: Another spin-off for ANYTHING BUT LOVE, and I blame you, LOL. This was asked of me so here it is.NYC, Broadway, Cate and Roons in lust - need I say more?





	

**New York, USA, February 2017**

“Aren’t you coming, Roons?” Sarah was standing behind the door, looking at her quizzically. She had already called Rooney from the car. “Helena’s waiting.”

Rooney was all dressed up, but she was having second thoughts. “I’m not sure if this is a good idea after all…” she murmured, knotting her brow. The thought of seeing Cate so close on stage terrified her suddenly.

“C’mon, Roons,” Sarah winked at her. “It’s only a fucking Broadway play. And maybe she sucks at it,” she giggled mischievously.

 _Yeah, right_. The day Cate Blanchett botched her performance hadn’t yet dawned, Rooney mused sullenly. “Well, okay.” Sighing, she grabbed her overcoat and bag and followed Sarah to the elevator. "What’s it about again?” she asked Sarah just to make idle conversation. She _had_ read about _The Present_ , the Sydney Theatre Company’s debut on Broadway.

Casting an amused glance at Rooney, Sarah didn’t buy her ignorance but humored her anyway. “An early Chekhov play about a beautiful widow who’s about to celebrate her 40th birthday with friends at her old country house.”

Rooney snorted. “So it’s a story of a sexually frustrated, middle-aged bitch who gets drunk while reminiscing about the good ole days, huh?” The elevator reached the lobby at the same time.

“Ouch,” Sarah chuckled. “I know she stood you up, and you guys aren’t talking, but that was plain mean… and funny.” She patted her friend on the back. “It’ll be good for you to see her again, even if only from a distance.” They walked across the hall and got into the car parked in front of Rooney’s apartment building.

* * *

**New York, USA, a few days before the performance**

“Please, don’t make a scene,” Andrew whispered to Cate as he was about to leave for the airport. “There are cameras everywhere.” He was returning home, their kids already waiting in the car.

“Oh, I’ll be the epitome of a loving wife,” Cate hissed between clenched teeth. “Five more minutes and you’ll be able to text your horny little starlet in peace and quiet. But for fuck’s sake, keep it in your pants when you’re in public.” She still hadn’t forgiven him for what had happened in the Sydney bar in October.

Andrew didn’t say a word as they entered the street crowded with media people hungry for juicy footage of the celebrated star and her departing husband. Cate stood on the sidewalk, throwing kisses after her family, lingering there until the taillights disappeared around the street corner.

The passing weeks had resembled normalcy, thanks to her children. She had enjoyed every minute with them, with little Edith and her boys accompanying her to different functions supporting the spirited resistance against the newly inaugurated president and his policy of bigotry and hate. Taking a stand against injustice had given her something else to think about than her own troubled life with Andrew. Starring on Broadway had proven out to be quite an experience as well. _The Present_ was a gigantic hit, and the masses of mainly female fans outside the theatre every night were overwhelming.

“Thank you for _Carol_ ,” a fan had muttered, grateful for an autograph Cate had just given her.

 _Carol…_   That film never went away; it seemed to follow her around wherever Cate traveled, and with it – _Rooney_. Returning to her hotel suite, she let out a long regretful sigh. She knew Rooney was in town, she had been tipped about it, yet Rooney had kept away from the play. _What am I thinking_ , Cate griped silently. _Why would she come and see it after what I’ve put her through?_ Still, a part of her hoped Rooney Mara would eventually grace the Ethel Barrymore Theatre with her presence.    

* * *

**New York, USA, February 2017, Part II**

Listening to Sarah and Helena talk about _Ocean’s 8_ , Rooney was able to relax a bit. They had enjoyed the shoot a great deal all the women involved having had the time of their lives. “I wish you’d been with us, Roons,” Sarah beamed. “You’d have made an excellent addition to the cast.”

Helena nodded enthusiastically. “You and Cate had such an amazing chemistry in _Carol_ , it’s a shame you two weren’t reunited for _Ocean’s 8_.” She obviously had no clue of what had actually transpired between the two stars at the time.

Catching Rooney’s apparent embarrassment, Sarah changed the subject. “Oh well, can’t have everything, I suppose, but it’ll be interesting to see how Cate tackles the challenge of a live performance,” she said, diverting Helena attention elsewhere.

Rooney settled back on her seat, her mind wandering far away from _Ocean’s 8_ , Sarah and Helena. What suddenly popped up in her mind didn’t help her at all.

* * *

**Cincinnati, USA, 20 th April 2014**    

“Come here, baby.” Cate’s intentions were clear, and they would have been obvious even without the seductive words spoken. She was buck naked, lying on the bed with her thighs wide open. Rooney had stepped into the bathroom for only a minute, but she did appreciate the warm welcome.

 _Warm wasn’t the word for it_ , Rooney mused, smiling at Cate. “I love it when you’re a horny little bitch,” she complimented in her peculiar fashion. “ _My_ bitch.” Rooney nearly ripped her own clothes off, going for the gratification that loomed before her.

“Why don’t you fuck me with your fingers, baby?” Cate begged, squirming wantonly on the bed.

“Fingers, huh?” Rooney mused out loud. “I think it’s best we broaden our horizons…” she grunted, egged on by the idea she had just had. They hadn’t used any toys yet, but right now Rooney was dying to surprise Cate. She walked over to her bureau and pulled out a double sided dildo. Seeing it startled Cate, but it also seemed to quicken her breathing.

“First you go down on me, baby,” she told Cate, “and get me really wet and hard…” Rooney walked over to Cate and stood beside the bed, her legs open. She pulled Cate’s head towards her crotch, signaling she was ready. Cate’s mouth found Rooney immediately. Sitting on the floor between Rooney’s open legs, she tilted her head back and let her tongue stroke her lover’s slit in slow, perpetual motion.

Soon panting, Rooney held onto Cate’s temples, her fingers flexing through her blonde hair. “That’s right, baby…” she moaned, an immense pleasure stirring inside her. Rooney felt Cate’s fingernails pierce her buttocks, but it only served to excite her more.

An ecstatic shudder impaling her, she noticed Cate swallowing more and more. Rooney knew she would have to stop this before it went too far. She didn’t want to cum too soon, and not like this. To push Cate’s head aside just when it was getting excruciatingly good was hard though.

“Watch me,” Rooney whispered, for a whisper was all she could manage now. She took the dildo that waited on the bed and pushed its longer end inside her own pussy first. Cate followed its slow motion as it slid into Rooney’s wet cunt, the luscious opening she had just prepared for it. Seeing Rooney take its entire length, Cate’s heart throbbed along with her impatient groin. Soon enough the rubber cock reappeared, coated with her lover’s cum.

“Your turn,” Rooney groaned. “Get on all fours. Now!” Rooney’s patience had disappeared with just a single thrust of her hard dildo. Cate did as she was told. “I lubed it for you, baby,” Rooney heaved as she inserted the shorter end of it between her own folds. “And now – show it to me…” Cate moved her knees wider and pushed her ass towards Rooney.  “Good girl…” Rooney murmured, her breathing unsteady and trembling. She moved closer to Cate and rubbed her bulging, pink entrance with the tip of her cock. The sweet ass in front of her pushed against it in desperate need.

Rooney tightened her muscles to keep the cock as firmly inside herself as possible, knowing it was needed to fuck Cate with the entire girthy length of it. She took hold of Cate’s sides and thrusted in, deliciously shattered by the effect it afforded them both. Rooney could smell Cate’s cum the moment she pulled back, Cate’s juices dripping on the sheets each time the cock glided in again, out again. Cate’s moans, growing distinctly louder with each delectable push, excited Rooney even more, and she knew she couldn’t control the motion, the surge of sensuous euphoria for much longer.

The pain and the pleasure intermingling, Rooney became one with her thrusts, one with her desire. She rode the high as much as she rode Cate, hitting deeper and reaching further with a blinding need to finish what they had started. Where she ended and Cate began, she didn’t know anymore, the equal, ‘cocky’ pleasure fusing them together. Nor did Rooney care, for she wanted nothing more than to cum with the woman she desired more than anyone before.     

Rooney felt Cate trembling, starting to jerk all over, her cunt squeezing around the dildo and then loosening again only to repeat it in short, fleeting intervals. Aware of her own sharpening contractions, Rooney focused on her last thrust, giving it all she could. The air was heavy with distilled lust, its irrepressible sounds hitting the walls, the ceiling, their momentarily deaf ears. They were two bodies in primal motion, shunning the extraneous and the unimportant surrounding the act they adored.

Crying out, Rooney orgasmed and collapsed over Cate who was still in the aftermath of her own forceful release. The dildo dropped on the sheets, drenched in their voluptuous cum, as Rooney grabbed Cate in her arms and rolled on her back in the bed.   

* * *

**New York, USA, February 2017, Part III**

The Ethel Barrymore Theatre was almost full, when Rooney, Sarah and Helena finally took their seats. A few smart phones were raised to take their picture as more people became aware of who had just arrived to enjoy the evening’s performance.   

Rooney was uncomfortable to say the least. She regretted coming there at all. She didn’t need to see Cate as Sarah had indirectly led her to believe. Now it was too late to escape, she mused begrudgingly. Leaving the theater at this point would be far too conspicuous. Sarah and Helena posed willingly for their fans, but Rooney preferred to stare ahead, growing more disgruntled by the second.

 _Cate_. Seeing her appear in front of her, Rooney drew a quick intermittent breath. Cate moved effortlessly around the stage, flirting casually with a young man who seemed smitten with her. As Anna Petrovna, the general’s widow, Cate possessed both the grace of her star persona and the nervous energy of a woman reaching a certain age while waiting for something or rather _someone_. Anna’s private world had split apart years ago and so had the world around her, Rooney mused, watching Cate flutter on the stage. The Russia of the post-perestroika years and the oligarchs no longer had a need for women like Anna.

Who was the man she was desperately waiting? Rooney was eager to know. Who was Platonov, and why did she turn her back on him the moment he arrived? Cate did it brilliantly, the shift in her mood from eager anticipation to fickle resentment. Richard Roxburgh was excellent as well, a charismatic punk unable to control his urges. Rooney shivered out of faint recognition. Keeping her eyes glued on Cate, she tried to follow the storyline but slipped between what was said and what Cate looked like. She glowed like a brilliant, exotic flower forgotten on the dump yard.

The scene in the gazebo took Rooney’s breath away. Cate dancing on the table to _What Is Love_ , dowsing her shirt with vodka… _God_ , she gasped silently. Rooney was instantly turned on even if she didn’t want to admit it. Then – the intermission.

“We’re gonna go and say hi now, because Helena has to leave right after the second act,” Sarah explained. “Are you coming?” Her question was hopeful.  

Rooney shook her head. “No, I don’t think so.” She remained in her seat, stubbornly avoiding Sarah’s obvious disappointment. She wondered whether Cate knew she was in the audience but dismissed the thought as unnecessary. _Who cares_.

* * *

_Rooney is here_. Changing her costume, Cate was consumed by the information she had been able to confirm herself. Sitting on the third row, Rooney had followed the play with an inscrutable expression on her face. _But she’s here_. _She came_. It made her giddy and nervous at the same time.

“Hey cookie,” Sarah winked at Cate, peeking in from behind the door. “Can we come in for a sec?” she asked cautiously. She didn’t want to interfere with Cate’s concentration.

 _You and Rooney?_ ran through Cate’s mind. “Of course,” she replied, her pinked cheeks quivering slightly as she smiled at her friend. “Step right in.” She braced herself for the long-awaited encounter with her ex-lover. When Cate saw Sarah’s companion, she could barely hide her disappointment. She liked Helena, but Rooney’s absence hit her much too hard.

Sarah’s keen eyes searched Cate, catching the passing shadow. She wanted to say something about Rooney but couldn’t, not with Helena around. “I really enjoyed the first act,” Helena said, smiling. “God, woman, that dance…” Sharing her enthusiasm, Sarah pretended to be fanning herself. 

“Thanks,” Cate laughed, calming down. “Still more to come, passionate confessions and desperate acts…” _The story of my life_ , struck her abruptly.

“I bet,” Sarah chuckled. “What’s with the Russians and their eternal fluttering too close to the flame?” she questioned.        

“It’s always about the Great Lie with Chekhov,” Cate acknowledged, refusing to draw any parallels from it to her own life.

“And country mansions and orchards…” Helena completed. “What’s not to love!” she concluded.

“You’ll get our flowers at the end, but unfortunately we can’t stay,” Sarah said apologetically.

 _So I’m not going to see her then…_ Sadness overwhelmed Cate, rendered her speechless. Forever alert, Sarah saved her from a potentially embarrassing moment.

“We’re gonna head back, give you a moment to regroup before the second act,” Sarah hastened to say. Hugging Cate, she knew this was her only chance to slip out something meaningful. “You know she came here because of you…” Sarah whispered in Cate’s ear. They left right after.

 _Regroup... sure_. Cate sank in her chair to wait for the play to continue. She wondered if anyone had ever been on stage because she wanted to look at someone in the audience instead of the other way around.  

* * *

Rooney had a hard time understanding what happened in the second act. The breeches Cate wore hugged her amazing ass way too tightly. They seemed to prevent blood flow to Rooney’s brain altogether, yet encourage its rushing into other parts in her body.

 _So Platonov is her one true love?_ Rooney pieced together. _One true love_. _Fuck_. People kept coming and going in one steady stream, griping about their destinies and proclaiming their passions. _Boring other people_ , Rooney mused. The play was nearing its end, that much was evident, and it bothered Rooney who wanted to keep on watching Cate. Sitting in the audience at least gave her the opportunity to do so without appearing too _thrilled_ about it.

A gun shot ended it – and Cate’s tears. _No, Anna Petrovna’s tears, for Cate had never cried for her… What the fuck am I blabbering?_ Rooney was mad at herself, at her haphazard emotions. The curtain went down, and Cate was gone.

* * *

When Cate went back on stage to take a bow with her fellow actors, Rooney’s seat was empty. She was no longer in the audience. Cate’s eyes darted around the crowded theater, trying desperately to catch a last glimpse of her. _She’s gone_.

Back in her dressing room, Cate took off her pussy hat with a long, depressed sigh. _It’s not like I expected anything,_ Cate mused, resigning to her fate. Yet seeing Rooney out there had invigorated her, given her hope. _Hope against hope_.

Tonight she would sign only a couple of autographs, smile only for a few photos, she decided. Her chauffeur was standing by to take her away from here, back to the solitude of her suite where she would soak in a bath and let her sorrow, her loss, eventually trickle down the drain with the lukewarm water.     

The crowd waited for her, as usual, and Cate took her time greeting her fans despite what she had decided a moment earlier. It was for them she did what she was born to do as much as she did it for herself. Unknown women fussing over her, telling her again and again what _Carol_ meant for them. _God, did we turn them all gay?_ Cate mused, winking at a fan girl who immediately turned red.  

When the car nudged forward, she saw her. A dark, almost gloomy character standing in the corner, waiting… for her? “Stop the car,” she ordered her chauffeur who stepped on the brake as soon as he heard her command. Cate wasn’t at all sure what she was about to do, but she did it anyway. She pushed the door open. She heard footsteps, she hoped for the best...

Rooney got into the car without as much as a hello. Stretching her back, she looked straight ahead. “To the hotel,” Cate instructed the driver. Nothing else was said, not even a glance exchanged, during the ride.

* * *

Rooney followed Cate up to her suite. Once inside she took off her coat and left it on the floor. “A shitty play,” she spoke, breaking the tense silence. “Utter Upton garbage.”

Cate turned around, an arrogant smile flickering around the corners of her mouth. “Oh yeah?” she said only.

“Clichéd, oversimplified, superficial, moronic, infantile, dated and boring as fuck,” Rooney went on, her voice perfectly steady.

“Are you done? Or would you like to take a stab at my performance next?” Cate challenged, perturbed by the inexplicable sentiment she was having. She was getting seriously turned on.

“Stilted, second-rate, unsurprising, mawkish, sentimental, and laughable,” Rooney hammered on. She had come very close to Cate without either one of them realizing it at first.

Her eyes blazing, Cate stared at Rooney who defiantly looked back. Five seconds later they were all over each other, devouring mouths, limbs, and bare skin that was brought out in the open. The haste in which they undid their obstacles, the restricting garments they both hated that very second, was mind-boggling. Dragging Rooney to the bed by the collar of her shirt while undressing it wasn’t a simple task, but it was well worth the effort for Cate.  

Cate spread Rooney’s legs and pressed her crotch against Rooney’s mound. “Are you wet for me, baby?” she panted into Rooney’s ear. The foreplay was over and done with.  

Rooney bucked her hips to meet Cate’s push and cupped her ass with both hands. “I’ve been wet for you for the past three hours…” she gasped, feeling Cate’s juices trickle over her inner thigh. Cate rolled Rooney’s legs up to get a better access to what she desired. As Cate darted her tongue inside Rooney’s mouth and twirled it around, her fingers mirrored the same moves in Rooney’s cunt.

“Fuck…” Rooney grunted, relinquishing all control to the woman she thought she had already learned to hate. The sweet agony of being fucked by Cate consumed her as if her whole body was being pricked with countless needles injecting purified bliss to each pore. Rooney’s entire frame shook out of the ardor of their lustful reunion, growing impatient to receive what it was out to get.

“I got you,” Cate breathed heavily, thrusting harder and faster. “Cum for me, baby…” She wanted to see Rooney come undone, she needed to see it. And she did.

Unleashing the sated urge, Rooney succumbed to the carnal rapture she had always associated with Cate. And when the last remnants of her climax twitched sluggishly on Cate’s hand, Rooney cupped Cate’s face and kissed her gently on the lips.               

 _The Present_ , Rooney thought as her thumb flicked back and forth over Cate’s right nipple. The night was still young.       


End file.
